This invention relates to improved fuel storage, delivery, and utilization in the operation of energy conversion systems and combustion engines.
Direct combustion chamber fuel injection technology has been advanced for improving the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines such as the venerable Diesel engine and for gasoline engines designed to achieve greater fuel efficiency. The most fuel efficient engine types rely upon direct injection of fuel into the combustion chamber to produce stratified-charge combustion.
Difficult problems that have prevented most of the 800 million engines now existing from benefitting from stratified charge technology include: expensive, high pressure fuel pumps and injectors are required to deliver fuel at high pressure for purposes of producing required surface-to-volume ratios for clean burning; dry fuels cause such pumps and fuel injectors to fail prematurely; ignition of preferred clean fuels requires ionizing conditions in air-fuel mixtures to initiate combustion which has defeated attempts to utilize compression ignition or the combination of fuel injectors and spark plugs in separate locations of the combustion chamber; gaseous fuels require much larger passageways than liquid fuels for equal power ratings and have not been directly injected because of the bulky, high-inertia, slow-acting components required for conventional fuel pumps and injectors; and because the parasitic losses for pumping and metering clean fuels has been unacceptable.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems noted above. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, this objective is accomplished by providing a process for operating a combustion engine which comprises the steps of supplying a fuel that is pressurized to a much lower magnitude than required by Diesel and other direct-injection engines require because the differential pressure at the time of delivery is normalized to a minimum and because of the greater air penetration and diffusion tendencies of prepared lower viscosity gaseous and/or high vapor pressure fuel selections.
Another object is to provide a fuel injection system that prevents the pressure produced during combustion chamber events such as compression and combustion from causing backflow of fuel in the delivery system to the fuel storage system.
Another object of the present invention is to minimize premature mixing of an oxidant such as air from the combustion chamber with fuel being delivered until desired mixing as a result of controlled actuation of the fuel delivery system.
It is an object of the invention to densify the delivery of compressible fuel fluids to allow more compact fuel injection systems.
It is an object of the invention to provide a low cost compact fuel metering and control system with minimum actuation energy requirements to facilitate substitution of clean fuels and low-heat content fuels in place of diesel and gasoline fuels.
Another related object is to facilitate beneficial thermochemical regeneration of waste heat rejected by the heat engine by reacting at least one conventional fuel containing hydrogen and carbon with an oxygen donor using substantial quantities of the waste heat to produce a mixture of engine-fuel containing substantial quantities of hydrogen and utilizing the engine-fuel to operate a combustion engine.
A corollary object is to facilitate the practical and convenient use of gaseous fuels in a combustion engine with a direct injection system.
Another object of the present invention is to operate an internal combustion engine with fluid fuels including gases and liquids that may be stored in pressurized containers comprising the steps of injecting the fuel near top dead center conditions of the combustion chambers until the storage pressure is reduced due to depletion of the storage inventory and then injecting the fuel progressively earlier in the compression and then during intake conditions of the combustion chambers to facilitate greater range from the fuel storage system.
An object of the present invention is to provide method, apparatus, and a process for monitoring and characterizing the condition of each combustion chamber of a combustion engine.
An object of the present invention is to provide a process for monitoring, characterizing, and controlling direct fuel injection into a combustion chamber along with ignition and combustion of such fuel for the purpose of minimizing emissions such as oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons.
An object of the present invention is to provide a process for monitoring and characterizing the ignition and combustion of fuel that has been injected into a combustion chamber along with combustion of fuel from another source to enable optimized fail safe and efficiency achievements.
An object of the present invention is to provide rapid fail safe operation of a combustion engine.
An object of the present invention is to optimize fuel delivery, combustion, and power development of a combustion engine.
An object of the present invention is to safely store and regulate the delivery of hydrogen and other highly volatile fuel selections on board a vehicle.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved safety concerning storage and transfer of pressurized fluids.
It is an object of the invention to compactly store hydrogen and other alternative fuels for efficient and safe replacement of gasoline and diesel fuels.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the weight and complexity of fluid storage and transfer components including valves, fittings, regulators, and related hardware.
It is an object to provide more assured connection and disconnection operations by relatively untrained persons that work on fluid storage and delivery systems.
It is an object of the invention to provide leak-free connection of high-pressure fluid delivery conduits with finger-tight anti-loosening connections.
It is an object to directly convert stored energy into work and useful heat with minimum loss.
It is an object to reduce the materials content and cost of energy-storage, energy-conversion, and emergency-disposal systems.
It is an object to provide materials for energy storage and conversion substantially from natural gas and/or renewable hydrocarbon resources.
It is an object of the invention to provide leak-free connection of fluid delivery conduits with fittings that are easily manipulated in constrained spaces and hard to reach places.
It is an object of the invention to provide assured sealing of composites of metal components and plastic components with greatly differing thermal expansion coefficients and elastic modulus characteristics.
It is an object to provide compact energy conversion that utilizes storage of energy as chemical and pressure potentials.
It is an object of the invention to provide multiple energy conversion functions from chemical and pressure storage potentials.
It is an object of the invention to provide load leveling for natural gas and electricity distribution systems with a safe on-site conversion system that stores energy compactly and safely while providing rapid response to demand and changing load conditions.
It is an object of the invention to provide electricity generation with much lower requirement for copper and other expensive metals.
Another object is to provide unthrottled air entry to the combustion chamber of an engine along with direct injection of fuel.
Another object is to provide precision monitoring of combustion chamber conditions to facilitate computer optimized fuel injection and spark ignition by an integral device that replaces the ordinary spark plug and greatly reduces curb weight along with component costs by replacing the ordinary distributor, inlet manifold throttling valve assembly, ignition coil, and negates the need for a catalytic reactor.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent during the course of the following detailed description and appended claims.
My invention may be best understood with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein an illustrative embodiment is shown.